Union Bancaire Privée was founded in 1969 by Edgar de Picciotto. UBP, one of the most highly capitalized private banks, is a major player in the field of asset management in Switzerland with over $75 billion of assets under management

Assets under management

Assets under management is a financial term used denote the market value of funds being managed by a financial instutition on behalf of its clients, investors, depositors, etc. This metric is a sign of size and success against competition...

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UBP is a full scale asset-management bank focused on performance and innovative investment solutions for private and institutional clients. In 1996 UBP Asset Management (UBPAM) opened in New York City and the first American fund of funds was created.

The bank is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and has 1,200 employees. The firm has offices in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Lugano

Lugano

Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...

, Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

, Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

, Dubai

Dubai

Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

, Nassau

Nassau, Bahamas

Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...

, and Montevideo

Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

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Private Banking

Union Bancaire Privée has 400 private wealth managers in different countries. UBP has expanded into the Middle East and recently opened an office in Moscow to cover the Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) markets.

Asset Management

UBP offers a wide range of capabilities in asset allocation

Asset allocation

Asset allocation is an investment strategy that attempts to balance risk versus reward by adjusting the percentage of each asset in an investment portfolio according to the investors risk tolerance, goals and investment time frame.-Description:...

, equities, bonds

Bond (finance)

In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...

, diversification strategies and alternative fund of funds.

Fund of Funds

In 2007, UBP was the world’s second largest allocator to hedge funds according to InvestHedge, and was elected Best Institutional Product Provider, in the HFR European Fund of Hedge Fund Awards.
By 2008, UBP was the largest fund of hedge funds player in the world with $55bn invested.

Sales and Trading

UBP services include: advisory, structured products, equity trading and brokerage, equity arbitrage, currency and precious metal trading, forwards and derivatives, treasury management and bond trading. UBP has over 40 specialist traders working with private wealth managers.

Financials

The balance sheet total reached CHF 18 billion (USD 19 billion), and the return on shareholder equity for the 2010 financial year was 12.8%. By pursuing a conservative approach to risk-management, UBP has maintained a solid financial base and a strong balance sheet with a high level of liquidity. With a Tier 1 capital ratio of 24.1%, UBP is one of the best-capitalised banks in Switzerland.

UBP is acquiring ABN AMRO's Swiss Branch, as announced by ABN on August 15th 2011.

Controversy

On May 8, 2009, a lawsuit against the bank was filed on behalf of New York investor Andrea Barron by law firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLP in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The lawsuit is seeking class-action status for investors in UBP Funds as of Dec. 11, 2008, and damages

Damages

In law, damages is an award, typically of money, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury; grammatically, it is a singular noun, not plural.- Compensatory damages :...

, including the return of management fees.

The bank has said it invested less than 1% of assets ($700 million) in the Madoff ponzi scheme

Madoff investment scandal

The Madoff investment scandal broke in December 2008 when former NASDAQ chairman Bernard Madoff admitted that the wealth management arm of his business was an elaborate Ponzi scheme....

. In March 2009, the bank offered to compensate eligible investors 50% of the money they initially invested with Madoff subject to a number of conditions.

In early December 2010, Union Bancaire Privee sidestepped the suit when it agreed to pay as much as $500 million in cash to resolve Bernard Madoff trustee’s claims. Judge Thomas P. Griesa decided Defendant's motion to dismiss was granted, and the case was dismissed in its entirety.
UBP was the first bank to settle Madoff trustee's claim, while several other private banks, including HSBC, JP Morgan and UBS, are still being sued for the case.

The 2010 financial results include the agreement the Bank reached with the US liquidator dealing with the bankruptcy of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, which allowed UBP to bring a final close to this chapter.